Pekka Kuusisto is a Finnish musician. Pekka Kuusisto began studying the violin at the age of three. His first violin teacher was Geza Szilvay at the East Helsinki Music Institute. In 1983 he enrolled in the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He began to study there with Tuomas Haapanen in 1985. He studied with Miriam Fried and Paul Biss at the Indiana University School of Music from 1992 to 1997. In 1995, Pekka Kuusisto became the first Finn to win the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition and was also awarded a special prize for the best performance of Jean Sibelius' violin concerto. He has won other prizes, concertised widely and recorded works for the Ondine label. Pekka Kuusisto plays a Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin lent by the Finnish Cultural Foundation. Pekka Kuusisto is constantly working with musicians from many different backgrounds. He regularly performs with electronics, giving concerts consisting of mostly improvised material. During the past few years, he has frequently performed a solo recital programme consisting of the Partita in d minor by Johann Sebastian Bach and electronic improvisations on funeral chorales. 

October 7th, 1976 in Espoo (Age 47) as Pekka Taneli Kuusisto